Technical Guitar Books?

[fluffypants]

Can anyone tell me good websites/ebooks that would hone your craft in technique (picking, legato, etc.)?

Thanks!

[Swinger]

Frank Gambale - Chopbuilder
Frank Gambale - Speed Picking

[Rich Cochrane]

This may not be considered cool, but Tom Hess's site has some good tips for practicing for speed. The guy's style is a million miles from what we do here but I think many of the principles still apply. I got quite a lot out of reading through these articles and applying the ideas I thought I could use.

Articles About Guitar Playing, Guitar Teaching and Music Careers

[JakeAcci]

Andrew Green's website and his "jazz guitar technique" book

Troy Stetina's "Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar" (or something) has some really useful observations, but for a jazz guitarist I wouldn't recommend playing through the whole thing

"Pumping Nylon" has some very useful stuff

Yeah Tom Hess has made some interesting observations as well

Learning challenging heads is probably one of the most useful things for jazz, like any Charlie Parker head (Donna Lee, Confirmation, etc)...I practice the head to "Inner Urge" on a regular basis.

[Rich Cochrane]

I practice the head to "Inner Urge" on a regular basis.

I saw you mentioned this tune in another thread... I like it a lot but haven't yet figured out workable fingerings for the last part. Maybe I'll spend some time with it next week and see what I can figure out.

A lot of heads pose specific technical challenges because they're not very "guitaristic" -- "Song for My Father" gave me some headaches at first, and I still fluff it sometimes. It might be interesting to have a thread on this general topic, actually...

[JakeAcci]

Rich, it's a great tune - tip - realbook1 is off. I did it by ear, slowing down, etc and I feel more confident in my version...it's easier to do it by ear too and feeling out those fast parts (with 'sweep' picking) rather than trying to read it and nail quintuplets or whatever.

[MarkRhodes]

Troy Stetina's "Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar" (or something) has some really useful observations, but for a jazz guitarist I wouldn't recommend playing through the whole thing

+1. Stetina's book is excellent. (You got the title right, too.) It ain't jazz and doesn't swing, but the *mechanics* of alternate picking are the same, whatever style you play.

I bought the book years ago when I was more of a rocker. I've taken it out recently to brush up on a few technical exercises. There's one I'd like to share but I can't type it in on this keyboard. (What's the 'downstroke' symbol on a computer keyboard?)

Let me see what I can do on my PC and I'll get back to you on this...

[pierre richard]

Vincent Bredice books at Mel Bay

Sal Salvador books at Mel Bay...

Bob Kellers Jazz Page...

Jamie Aebersolds site...

Bert Ligons site...

to name a few...and check out all on this site...much here...

time on the instrument..pierre

[MarkRhodes]

5 Cross String Picking Mechanics


Not all string crossings are created equal. In his book “Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar,” Troy Stetina claims that the following five string-crossing “mechanics” are the most common. The exercises are all built on a minor pentatonic scale. (He uses E minor in 16th notes, while I've switched it to A minor and suggest starting with 8th notes to focus on accuracy.)


I apologize for the lack of music writing software, but the exercises are simple enough to understand without it.


1)e 8 5 / b 8 5 (Repeat)


2)e 8 / b 8 5 8


3)e 5 8 5 / b 8


4)e 8 5 / b 8 / e 5


5)b 8 / e 5 / b 8 5


Use alternate picking throughout. Start each exercise with a downstroke.


Play each figure twice, then move up a string. (From E and B to B and G, and so on; after reaching the low E, reverse the process, going back to D and A, then G and D, then B and D, and finally back to E and B. It may sound confusing but it plays easy.)


“Use a metronome, and pinpoint which mechanics are more difficult for you, and concentrate mostly on those...If you have trouble with a particular mechanic, you will have problems with it every time you play a run in which it occurs.” Troy Stetina, pg 24.

[JakeAcci]

My favorite page as well!

[Rich Cochrane]

I quite like a book called Guitar Fitness by someone calling himself "Josquin des Pres" (can that be his real name??). It's basically a large number of systematic, challenging single-note chromatic patterns. Some of them sound cool, too.

I must get Stetina's book, the shred angle put me off but this stuff sounds really interesting.

[EDIT: Jake, it would be ridiculously great if you could do a video of "Inner Urge" like the one you did on "Confirmation"... if you can bear it...]

[Kojo27]

Troy Stetina's "Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar" (or something) has some really useful observations, but for a jazz guitarist I wouldn't recommend playing through the whole thing

This shouldn't be too off-topic... Err, why pray tell do you not recommend a jazz player's working through this entire book? (I have it, too - just curious.)

kj

[JakeAcci]

This shouldn't be too off-topic... Err, why pray tell do you not recommend a jazz player's working through this entire book? (I have it, too - just curious.)

kj

hey Kojo

Purely subjective and partially speculative, my opinion, as somebody who has spent a lot of time practicing things related to technique/speed:

I usually assume the goal of a jazz guitarist posting in a forum about guitar technique and speed is to be able to get up on stage with a band, take a solo on an uptempo tune and be able to play fluid, melodic 8th note lines at that tempo.

To be able to do this requires, at a base, physical ability, but more importantly, musical/conceptual ability. The guitarist has to be able to imagine and hear vocabulary at that speed.

Both the physical and the conceptual require a lot of work and time, at least they do for me.

Most of us are also probably limited in how much time we get to practice on a given day.

So, with Stetina's book my speculation/opinion is that a jazz guitarist could work through the whole thing and potentially gain a lot of insights to technique and increased technical abilities in terms of speed of playing scales and arpeggios, yet in that whole time period do absolutely nothing to develop their jazz vocabulary directly. The material he'd be practicing would have no musical relevance (very little melodic relevance, to put it another way) to the "fast" material he'd want to be performing. It's work on the physical but not on the conceptual or musical.

Similarly and in a more negative light, I do believe you "are what you practice." When we improvise we often recite what it is familiar to us, and if you practice scale patterns all day I think it's likely you are going to wind up reciting scale patterns in your solo.

I met this great bassist who, I think taught at Berklee, said that one of his students came to him and said "My solos just sound like I'm playing scales and arpeggios!"

He replied "Well, what have you been practicing?"

And the student said "Scales and arpeggios!"

My opinion would be that instead of working through the whole book trying to nail each example, it makes more sense to try to apply its observations and advice towards jazz vocabulary...lines from heads, solos, or original material if that's yer bag. That way the practice time can be spent connecting the physical and the conceptual - working on the physical, but keeping it 100% relevant to the musical goals.

Even in terms of technique there are just so many different things to practice at any point in time. I think it makes the most sense to focus on the things the individual wants to be able to perform .

[Kojo27]

Two Right Hand Technique Builders

The best right-hand exercise I know is the following, from a guy named Van Manakas.

Pick open strings. Use a metronome. Start as slowly as you must to play without mistakes. Build speed gradually. Shoot for at least 80 - 92 bpm, 4 notes per click (16ths). Van could do it at 144, but he'd done it every day of his life for ten years. This probably works best for those who float their right hand. Warm up with it daily - the results are real cool.

Might want to deaden the strings with left hand, or a towel. You're playing 8 notes on the low E, followed immediately by 8 notes (2 beats) on the open A. Then it's back to low E for 8 notes. Then with no pause play 8 notes on open D. Then back to low E. Continue until you've played low E, 8 notes, high E eight notes, low E eight notes. This is a good one.

6th - 0000 0000
5th - 0000 0000
6th - 0000 0000
4th - 0000 0000
6th - 0000 0000
3rd - 0000 0000
6th - 0000 0000
2nd - 0000 0000
6th - 0000 0000
1st - 0000 0000
6th - 0000 0000

When you can do this (it takes most a long time to do it with speed and without errors), do the same thing but with one group of 16th notes per string.

6th - 0000
5th - 0000
6th - 0000
4th - 0000
ETC.

Then, once that's mastered:

6th - 00
5th - 00
6th - 00
4th - 00
ETC.


========================
Another good one - play this pattern on two adjacent strings, 16th notes, metronome, strict alternate picking. Keep it going for a minute, no errors. Or 30 seconds might be better if you're building speed. I made a demo sound file of this one, in case it's confusing. You're playing 4-note groups, but always 1 note on the lower-pitched string, and 2 on the higher, 1 on the lower, etc. Banjo-ish. Listen to the example. Practice on all string pairs. Eventually practice moving across pairs of strings...

I don't have music-writing software that I can use, but here's an attempt to illustrate - although the bottom and top lines don't want to line up outside the Edit window Listen to the demo if confused.

-00-----00-0---
0--0-------0---- ETC.
1e&a__2e&a

Example: https://www.box.com/s/d484978b809e0b0a8b70

[Kojo27]

hey Kojo

Purely subjective and partially speculative, my opinion, as somebody who has spent a lot of time practicing things related to technique/speed:

/ /

I think it makes the most sense to focus on the things the individual wants to be able to perform .

Yep, agreed. And so true about hearing what you want to play, at tempo! This is what amazes me about Al Dimeola -- I can't even think that fast; I have an idea how he does it, but hey -- I'll never have to worry about it.

Staying on topic: Al DiMeola's picking exercises book is out there somewhere. Terrifying Technique has a few very good things in it - the demo tracks aren't among them, tho.

[Rich Cochrane]

Both the physical and the conceptual require a lot of work and time, at least they do for me.

This is so true. I have pretty good rock chops (at least, more or less as good as I ever need them to be) but making the transition to jazz has turned my hands into idiots. I know what I want to play, and I know I could play twice as fast as I want to play it, but it doesn't come off in the moment.

One issue I have is doing less stepwise motion, causing me to get tangled up with right-hand fingerings (i.e. not having a finger "ready" to play the next note I want to hear).

I'm starting now to work on just improvising lines of 8th notes or triplets against the metronome over a static harmony, trying to sustain the flow for as long as possible. It's very humbling how slow I have to set the nome before I can achieve this .

[MarkRhodes]

. Even in terms of technique there are just so many different things to practice at any point in time. I think it makes the most sense to focus on the things the individual wants to be able to perform .

Jake, I think it would be wrong for a jazz player to say, devote a year to playing nothing but Stetina exercises, but I don't see anything wrong (-and much that is good) in a jazz guitar player saying, "You know, I'm gonna make it *part* of my daily routine to increase my picking accuracy and efficiency. That just can't hurt!

Sometimes we guitarists forget that most of the jazz greats we admire so much---Bird, Diz, Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown--devoted years to developing mind-blowing technique. They kept honing it even after becoming established professionals.

Do horn players have conversations like this????

[MarkRhodes]

And so true about hearing what you want to play, at tempo! This is what amazes me about Al Dimeola -- I can't even think that fast; I have an idea how he does it, but hey -- I'll never have to worry about it.

Hey, nobody thinks that fast! Seriously, it doesn't work that way. Conscious thought is actually *slow* and often *follows* action. Neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga has a cool book out called "Who's In Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain" and he talks about this. He doesn't talk much about music, beyond saying he wishes he'd listened to his mother and practiced the piano more.

Musicians who can navigate fast passages are like grandmaster chess players who can glance at a position and choose a strong move. Pattern recognition is everything. Conscious thought tends to come *after.* (This is one of the big problems with chord-scale theory: not that it is wrong--it isn't wrong--but that, on the fly, if you start thinking, you're already behind!)

[Kojo27]

Hey, nobody thinks that fast! Seriously, it doesn't work that way. Conscious thought is actually *slow* and often *follows* action. Neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga has a cool book out called "Who's In Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain" and he talks about this. He doesn't talk much about music, beyond saying he wishes he'd listened to his mother and practiced the piano more.

Musicians who can navigate fast passages are like grandmaster chess players who can glance at a position and choose a strong move. Pattern recognition is everything. Conscious thought tends to come *after.* (This is one of the big problems with chord-scale theory: not that it is wrong--it isn't wrong--but that, on the fly, if you start thinking, you're already behind!)

Cool stuff, Mark! And I'd never considered how this applies to chord-scale theory/improvising. Ouch! I've been of the *strong* notion, for a long time, that it has to be much like typing is to a fluent writer - it formulates in the mind (words, notes) and sort of appears at the same time (on the page, on the guitar.) Hmm.

Now I have to rethink the whole thing. I'll check out the book - I dig stuff like this.

Are you saying that master chess players who glance and choose, like that, are using the equivalent of licks? There are so, so many possible scenarios on a chess board, but they are somewhat finite and can be studied, and are studied... is this what you mean?

kj

[Rich Cochrane]

I've been of the *strong* notion, for a long time, that it has to be much like typing is to a fluent writer - it formulates in the mind (words, notes) and sort of appears at the same time (on the page, on the guitar.) Hmm.

Me too, but I guess this is partly about priorities and individual goals. For me personally, the act of improvisation is more important than making an idiomatic jazz noise. If I have to choose I'd rather improvise slowly and thoughtfully than regurgitate licks at 300bpm (I'd like to be genuinely fluent at higher speeds, of course, which is why I'm subbed to this thread ).

[EDIT: To avoid derailment I started a separate thread about the use of licks here.]

[MarkRhodes]

Cool stuff, Mark! And I'd never considered how this applies to chord-scale theory/improvising. Ouch! I've been of the *strong* notion, for a long time, that it has to be much like typing is to a fluent writer - it formulates in the mind (words, notes) and sort of appears at the same time (on the page, on the guitar.)

Funny you should mention typing. That's another example used in the book. Everyone posting to this forum types. Some faster than others, but most of us who have typed a while can type without looking at the keyboard. However, if someone *asks us*, "where is the V key?" we have to stop and think about it. Conscious thought is slow like that. (Another demonstration of this is the way we jump when walking outdoors and hear a hissing sound. We react *before* we have time to consciously think 'snake!')

He thinks our brains are more efficient at what they do "automatically." Which is why great musicians practice so damn much. You really know a piece when you can play it *without* thinking about it.

Which put a thought in my mind. (I''m going to kick this around a bit more and may start a new thread on it soon.) We've all heard "play what you hear" or "learn to play what you hear." I have come to realize this CANNOT work. First, if you hear a line *before* you play it, well, it won't sound the same when you *do* play it because the chords will have changed! (In short, if you 'play what you hear,' you will always be *late*.)

I think it's more like talking, we have a sense what we want to say but we don't hear it all out in our head and THEN say it. We actually become conscious of it *as* we say it, but we *feel* like we must've known it before deciding to say it.

The brain can fool us this way. Take this simple test: touch your nose with your index finger. Easy, right? Of course it is. Here"s the tricky part: which did you feel first? If you're like everyone else, you'll say, "I felt them both at the same time." Even neuroscientists say this, but they KNOW something"s wrong with it because the message from the nerves in the nose just travel a few inches to the brain< whereas the message from the nerves in the fingertip must travel back down the finger, through the palm, the forearm, the upper arm, the shoulder, and so on, all the way to the brain. They can't travel that distance in the same time the signal travels from the nose. But we all *experience* it that way.

The point being: if we really heard lines full, in time, *before* playing them, they would be *in the wrong place* when we played them because the music would have moved along.

(This is NOT to suggest that people don't hear music in their head, have musical ideas. But I don't think one can, while improvising, pre-hear lines because it Takes Too Long, and further, the harmony sounding when you pre-hear the line won't be the same as the harmony sounding when you play it!)

I wanna kick this around some more. This sorta thing fascinates me....